3 February 2006

Tracking down relatives who may have fought in World War I has now been made much easier thanks to the web.

Around 700,000 names of British soldiers who died in the Great War of 1914 to 1918 are now searchable via a website.

The online index lists all the soldiers, along with details of their place of birth, residence and where they enlisted.

With the Internet now able to play a greater role in family tree research, the current enthusiasm for genealogy is only set to grow.

Improved web-based research facilities mean that more and more people can access vital information from home without having to trawl the libraries and archives.

This new index of World War I deaths has been created by the website, 1837online.

It has revealed that two-thirds of the dead soldiers were "killed in action", 21 per cent "died from wounds" and a final 13 per cent were simply registered with the words "died".

The site also contains many other details on a particular ancestor's life and death, explained Elaine Collins from 1837online.

"Placing these records online is a great boon for the many people searching for a relative who died in the Great War," she told the website, Web User.

"They can now see where their ancestor enlisted and which regiment they joined, which means they can now pinpoint exactly where the battalion was fighting on the day their ancestor died."

Users can access the index for free but once they've located a name they must pay a minimal fee to access the complete record.

© Adfero Ltd

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